"Family members, big news!"

"Get to the point if you have something to say, otherwise shut up."

"Even if I believe you, you're a coward... and you're wasting my time reporting on celebrity affairs..."

"What? Who? Who? Someone leaked a melon?!"

"Family members, this is really big news! The Yamato Guard is gone!"

"?"

"ah?"

"Really? Weren't those brainless idiots strutting around in the public chat just a couple of days ago?"

"Yeah, yeah, damn it, it's infuriating to even think about it. I even did business with them."

What did you sell?

"They traded a cultural heritage item for a box of supplies, but it turned out to be all expired stuff."

"You sell cultural heritage items? Those are legendary quality..."

"It's completely useless. A few critical hit points are not even worth a box of supplies."

"The Yamato Guard is gone? In what sense? Did they disband?"

"In the sense of being reduced to ashes."

"!!!"

"Red bean paste?"

"Congratulations! Congratulations!"

"Where did you die? How did you die?"

"As far as I know, it got stuck in a blizzard! But I don't know exactly what happened yet! I just drove here, and the place is a complete mess, tsk tsk!"

"Hilarious, that's so stupid! With the snow so heavy, anyone with a brain would stop and wait for the treasure chests to respawn, and temporarily reinforce and upgrade their base. Who would keep running forward?"

"Seriously, since the speed at the map boundary is based on the group's progress, everyone is standing here, so there's no fear of being swallowed up."

“I removed the roadside electricity meter box and modified it so that I could steal electricity from the streetlights.”

"My goodness, you're amazing..."

"I desperately need a tutorial on modifying an electric meter box!"

"Finally someone said... Every meter box I passed was occupied, I couldn't find an empty one, so I could only keep driving forward..."

"If you don't know how, you can find shelter between two bridge piers from the wind and snow. It's not just the meter boxes; all the bridge piers here are full of cars."

...

When Xi Xi drove her snowmobile back to the car, her mother was sitting on the sofa, staring at the public chat screen with a serious expression.

She shook the snow off her clothes and closed the hidden underground door to the parking garage. A blast of warm air rushed in, a stark contrast to the freezing cold outside the car.

After the RV was upgraded, a hidden door was added between the first floor and the underground storage area. This hidden door is concealed on the side of the sofa, and it is difficult to notice its existence without careful observation.

Below the hidden door is a fixed wooden ladder, which can be climbed directly up and down, solving the previous problem that it could only be opened from the outside.

"How about we set up camp like we did in the chat?" Chu Zhiqin pointed out the window and said to Xi Xi, "Look, there's an empty meter box over there."

"Cheng Xu and the others have already gone to explore and plan to fully charge all the large batteries they've scavenged." Xi Xi opened the pixel map on the central control screen, explaining the surrounding terrain and route planning to her father while turning back to her mother in agreement, "But it's still not advisable to stay here for long. It's safer to follow the evacuation route."

“I think so too. Judging from the previous two earthquakes, the bridge collapse was too random! It was impossible to predict…” Xi Zhongcang’s voice was low, and the terrifying image of the bridge collapsing behind him kept flashing through his mind.

In that instant, the earth shook violently, the bridge collapsed as if it were made of paper, and the huge cracks opened like the gaping maw of a ferocious beast, as if to devour everything.

Unable to suppress a shiver, Xi Zhongcang took a deep breath and tried to calm his voice: "It's better not to take such a big risk just to steal a little electricity."

Even in survival games, you only have one life.

Chu Zhiqin nodded in agreement, then turned her gaze back to the public screen.

"Looking for a group. Female players only. DM me if interested."

"Holy crap, I glanced at the previous transaction screen. The avatars of those Yamato Guard bastards are really grayed out!! It's actually real!"

"Good riddance."

"Didn't they say they had some kind of anti-evil ability? I was a little scared at first thinking about them merging into our server, but now hahaha~"

"What's there to be afraid of? Is that all?"

"Stop talking without understanding the situation, and stop offering hindsight advice now."

"Let's be careful... Everyone's banding together these days, and they're not an isolated case."

"Anyone want to team up with me? I have the Earth Spirit Shield. There are only Black people around here, and I feel a bit uneasy..."

"Me! Me! Me!"

"Dude! Where are you??? I'm DMing you!"

"Bridge piers? If an earthquake collapses, the first people to be crushed to death will be those under the bridge piers."

"The area near the cross-sea bridge won't work; it has to be on the actual island. Didn't you see the discussion among those foreigners? The number of Earth Spirit Guardian Shields consumed on the island is much less."

"The problem is I can't find the island!"

"Go find a locked high-level treasure chest to refresh. Just break the ice. You can get the Earth Spirit Guardian Shield, although the probability is very small."

"The probability is low, but that's okay. Let's team up and search together! If we can find just one, we'll win! One shield can protect an entire piece of land!"

"Wouldn't that mean the lone wolf is just waiting to die? Damn it, did this game even consider human players?!"

"Seriously, if you don't team up, with this drop rate, it's practically the same as waiting to die."

"What's wrong with the Yamato Guard? Aren't they supposed to be the largest group in East Asia?"

"Hey, where's that war correspondent? Tell me the details!"

"Squat down."

...

By the time everything was ready and the three vehicles reached the Northeast Plain, it was nearly dusk.

The cold wind whistled sharply across the ice field, and the metal shell of the RV was covered with frost three fingers thick, shaking off fine ice crystals with every shake.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!